I’m glad you have a plan now, @Swent39 and hope you can get your surgery scheduled soon.
We’ve had several members who went to Dr. Karni for ES surgery & had good outcomes. I have to warn you that intraoral ES surgery along w/ a styloidectomy will leave you with an extremely sore throat possibly for a month which makes it uncomfy to eat & swallow. Be forewarned that ES surgery has a slow recovery as damaged nerves are slow to heal, & it can take a few months after surgery to start feeling better. The biggest thing you may notice is feeling very tired. That can take 6-8 weeks to go away, but for some people it’s quicker.
I think intraoral ES surgeries have evolved to some degree, & there’s a greater understanding now about how to help patients have less pain post op than a few years ago. One thing that Dr. Karni may not prescribe post op, but you can request, is an Rx for a tapering course of steroids. I vote for dexamethasone as it has less side effects than prednisone. Steroids are powerful anti-inflammatories & will help relieve the swelling in your throat beyond what ice water & sucking on ice chips can do.
Here’s a discussion started by one of our members who had a good outcome from her surgery w/ Dr. Karni:
You can find other discussions about him by clicking on the magnifying glass search tool in the upper right of this page & typing his name in the search box.